So yesterday, I talked about a security alert involving malware. Being the good IT support steward I try to be, I want to alert you on another one. It’s time to change your Twitter password.
But don’t just take my word for it. Because Twitter Support itself delivered the warning yesterday afternoon. They discovered a bug that played with passwords. Then, Twitter assured users they fix the bug before it caused any real problems. However, they do suggest changing your password as soon as you can. There’s a reason for their urgency. Because it stored password in an unmasked environment. Also, the bug stored plain passwords (those without numbers) openly on their internal log.
I think some are getting the message. So far, Twitter’s warning tweet got over 15,000 hearts. It also has over 28,000 users talk about this. Tech Crunch and other major tech publications reached out to Twitter about this episode. Twitter leaders and spokespeople insists this lapse will have an extremely low effect on your account. According to their investigations, there is no evidence of foul play or on outright attack. This was just an honest mistake… a mistake made by one of the largest social media companies of all-time.
Yes, you need to change your Twitter password. Please do so sooner than later. I’m not telling you…they are. At Computer Geeks, we have thousands of Twitter followers. Many of them near our Boston computer service shop. It looked like Twitter was finally out of the woods. As you remember, in the past one or two years, they endured financial setbacks and bullying scandals. Now, this comes up. When you do change your password, don’t make it an easy one. Choose something you and only you would remember. It’s better to make it with both numbers and letters. This is yet another security alert.